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Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Chicken Tamale Casserole

A lot of people make new year's resolutions about their physical health (losing weight, quitting smoking, running a marathon, etc.). I'm concerned about my physical health, too, but last year I was very successful in sticking with my resolutions because they were about my state of mind. I resolved to be more organized, less stressed by everyday problems and to ask for help when I needed it. And guess what? It worked!

Meal planning is a major part of organization and health. I don't cook perfectly healthy meals every day, but I know that I'm probably better off (both physically and financially) eating homemade meals instead of fast food and restaurant food. One of the biggest challenges to meal planning is building up a decent pantry and recipe collection, especially for weeknights. I want meals that aren't too stressful to cook after work, but that taste good enough to make me commit to preparing them.

I found this chicken tamale pie casserole on Pinterest from Cooking Light. I was intrigued by the fact that it looked pretty simple and claimed to approximate the flavors of one of my favorite Mexican dishes.

Well, this casserole was great! It only took about 15 minutes of hands-on time to prepare and the result was as good as the tamales I've ordered in local Mexican restaurants, but much easier to prepare. The sweet corn cake layer is soft and slightly spicy and the chicken topping has just enough cheese to taste, but not enough to make the dish uncomfortably heavy. It smells great, it tastes great and the leftovers were delicious for lunch on the following day.

Try this recipe as as an alternative to taco night or a pan of enchiladas. It has a nice flavor payoff for some pretty common ingredients.

I'm not sure. Please let us know if you try. This is pretty quick (45 minutes or so) and the oven browns it nicely. If you put the ingredients in the slow cookier raw they'd probably congeal and not make nice layers with a bubbly melted cheese topping.